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"Preludes" is a poem by T. S. Eliot, composed in the early stages of his career. It is in turns literal and impressionistic, exploring the sordid and solitary existences of the spiritually moiled as they play out against the backdrop of the drab modern city. In essence, it is four poems rather than one, and it is duly labelled as such. Composed over the course of four years in France and the United States, it comes to just 54 lines. Its four parts are uneven, irregular and written in free verse symptomatic of the speaker's stream of consciousness. Part I is thirteen lines, part II ten, and parts III fifteen and IV sixteen each.

References

• Montgomery, Marion. "Memory and Desire in Eliot's 'Preludes'." South Atlantic Bulletin, 1973: 61-65.

External links

• "Preludes" at the website of Washington State University.